The successful and controversial movie “Borat” has been deemed offensive to both the people of Kazakhstan and to the people of Middle America.
But what about Kazakhs living in Middle America?
We took local Kazakh grad students Zhandos Yessenbayev, 25, and Abzal Daribayev, 25, to a screening of the new movie to see what they thought. (Yessenbayev is a PhD candidate in computer science at the University of Chicago, and Daribayev is a PhD candidate in molecular biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.)
Despite their studies, both academics are well aware of the movie (a mock documentary about Borat’s journey to America; the film’s full title is “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”).
“I’ve been here for a year,” Daribayev said, “and each time I introduce myself to a colleague and say where I’m from they say, ‘Oh, Kazakhstan, right. Borat.’ “
After the screening, we discussed the film over cups of hot tea at a local cafe. Answers and questions were given in both Russian and English. The following is an edited and translated transcript:
TRIBUNE: So cultural representations aside, how would you rate “Borat” as a comedy?
ABZAL DARIBAYEV: I would give it two stars.
ZHANDOS YESSENBAYEV: I would give it less. I smiled only two or three times. I didn’t understand a lot of the jokes. I don’t think it was Kazakh humor.
How would you rate it as a representation of your country?
ZY: There was no representation of Kazakhstan except for the name and the flag.
AD: Even the [the village] was like from somewhere in the Caucasus, maybe Georgia. [Actually it was shot in Romania.]
Did anyone even look like a Kazakh?
AD: We have many ethnic groups in our country, but these people didn’t look like [ethnic] Kazakhs. You can find someone who looks like [star Sacha Baron Cohen] in Kazakhstan, but I would probably think he was a Ukrainian from Kazakhstan.
At the end, Borat tries to kidnap Pamela Anderson to be his bride. Don’t Kazakhs sometimes kidnap brides?
AD: Yes, it still happens occasionally in our country — mostly in the south, never in the north — but not like that. These days it is arranged beforehand. If a boy likes a girl but he and his family does not have enough money to pay the bride price, the boy will “kidnap” her, but she will know. Then after some time when the parents are waiting for her to come home, some relatives of the husband will go to the parents’ house and say, “Sorry, your daughter was kidnapped by our relative but we are bringing small presents to you and it is her destiny or something like that.”
We have a joke that if you are the relative who has to tell the girl’s family, you may be beaten. But it is not done like he did with Pamela Anderson in the movie.
Is Anderson famous in your country?
AD: Yes, we have “Baywatch” and so many people like Pamela Anderson but everyone has his own taste.
You said you laughed a few times. When?
ZY: I liked the scene when he was singing the [fake Kazakh] national anthem at the rodeo. He started by praising America and the war [“of terror” as Borat says]. He says that George Bush should “drink the blood of Iraqis,” and the American people there [in the movie] liked that and clapped for him. Because most people in Kazakhstan don’t agree with the war, they would find that funny. But as soon as he started singing the [Kazakh] anthem about the greatness of another country, the crowd turned on him. Watching that transformation on their faces was very interesting. I like that kind of dark, black humor.
There also was that part when he thought the elevator was his hotel room. That is the kind of humor that would be funny in any country.
What about the scene where the two nude guys wrestle each other throughout the hotel? Was that funny?
ZY: I couldn’t even look at that part. It was too vulgar. You have to know where the limits are and it crossed those limits.
AD: I agree.
So obviously, the film isn’t going to teach anyone about Kazakh culture. Does it teach anything?
ZY: Yes, actually, I think he opens up an America that you don’t see very often and gets things out of people that they wouldn’t normally talk about. It shows it as a very diverse country just as we are in Kazakhstan.
Part of the film was to show a strange side of the U.S. It pretended to show how these foreign [Kazakh] people live, but it is really about how real Americans live. It’s a good idea because there is this concept out there of how Americans live and then you have this film that shows these representations of American life that aren’t like that.
AD: I think it’s a movie about a simple person who thinks he understands America. And so he takes this trip driving across the country to California, and he is meeting the positive and negative sides of it and seeing very unexpected things. I didn’t even know what secession was. [Borat visits Southerners who sport pro-secession signs]. This is a different kind of America than you see from Kazakhstan.
Even if Borat is not like a real Kazakh, can you relate to some of his experiences as a newcomer to America?
ZY: Yes, I came here with ideas about America, but things are so different. For example, I knew this was a country of freedom but I didn’t know how real this freedom was. There is such an informal way of talking to people. You can talk to your professor like “Hi, Bob or John.” That would be very rude to us, but once you get used to it it’s OK.
So this idea of Borat coming up to politicians and kissing them is funny to me. But even Borat learns that this informality is not so real because some of them don’t want to be kissed.
Even this idea of freedom is not what it seems. You have this free country, but when it comes to a concrete situation the freedom vanishes. You can be anything you want, but when it comes to a personal situation with, for example, prostitutes, blacks and homosexuals, it’s a different story.
Do you think this film would ever play in Kazakhstan?
AD: No because there is a lot that’s offensive — the jokes about his sister as a prostitute and the retarded brother, no restrictions and the sex ethic and such — people wouldn’t go for that.
Would there have been a way to do the film without offending Kazakhstan?
ZY: If you removed the word Kazakhstan and the flag, it would not be such an offensive movie to me. I could watch it if I didn’t have these associations that he’s a Kazakh and my flag is there and this is supposed to be about my culture.
So if he was an Uzbek it would have been OK?
ZY: No, no, no. No particular country. It could be like that Tom Hanks movie where he is stuck in an airport in a country with no particular name.
AD: Americans don’t understand Kazakhstan anyway, so if it were a totally made-up name, it wouldn’t matter. You could say it’s near Russia and called `Mujikistan.’ A fake place would have been OK. No country would have been affected or offended.
So how has “Borat” affected you so far?
AD: I have friends here who saw the trailer for the movie and they said “Kazakhstan, that’s your country. So is that what you life is like there?” Already they have a very negative opinion.
ZY: Already when I meet someone, they have this association and they say, “Are you like Borat?” It’s not pleasant. It’s not nice.
So you don’t think Americans will get that this is a joke?
AD: Some may understand that it’s all a joke, but still it is in their heads and will associate [Kazakhstan] with this guy.
ZY: And they know that in every joke there is a little truth and they will think that Kazakhstan may be something like this.
What would you want to tell Americans who go to see this film?
AD: This is not the real image of our country, and you are welcome to come and visit Kazakhstan and come and see what it is really like.
In fact, after the scene where the drunk fraternity boys come out with all of those racist and sexist remarks, the guy sitting behind me tonight at the screening said, “Man, he’s ripping on America.”
ZY: Maybe now that guy understands a little bit about what the Kazakhs feel.
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meng@tribune.com
